Its quite normal as the shipping cost keep change due to custom restriction.
A lot online seller not longer ship out or ship with DHL/Fedex with shipping cost more than US50 and above.
I think Gearbest and Banggood tried their best to provide cheaper solution on battery related product.
I also wish to have free shipping if possible
If you are in the US, I see no sense buying name brand li ion batteries from China. Plenty of shops in the US that have comparable prices when you apply the BLF discount, and you get your stuff in a couple of days instead of a month. My last several battery orders have been from imrbatteries.com.
But I guess it’s not as easy in Canada.